1949 Chevy 3600 Tow Truck

[Black93GT]

I admit it. I have a bad habit of searching craigslist for cars/trucks I don't need or have space for. This constant, unnecessary searching led me to a 1949 Chevy 3600 in Brawley CA, that was converted into a tow truck. The last thing I needed was another project in my garage but I really dug the patina and well... its too late now.

I live in northern California and was making a trip to visit friends in Huntington Beach and San Diego. Since I'm headed that way... how much further could this Brawley really be?

I packed my truck, caught an hour and a half power nap and hit the road at 11:30PM. Pull into HB at 7am to grab one seriously awesome friend (who I'm now forever indebted to thanks to this journey) and a fresh cup of coffee. Back on the road and finally pulling into Brawley a half day after leaving my house (much further then anticipated). Although we were still in the same state, it just might have been an alien planet. The cool temps of my air conditioned truck left us brutally unprepared for the mid-day 110 degree heat.

Heat exhausting had set in as a price was agreed upon followed by falling deep into heat stroke by the time we winched the truck onto the trailer and locked it down.

Back in HB I was finally able to take a few pics. Its not pretty, badly beaten, but I like the patina.

[Advanced Design]

Welcome to the forum!

Congrat's on the find. Looks pretty solid! Nice adventure getting it too. I've had the same problem with Craigslist searching (so many cool vehicles available) I disabled the app on my phone.

What are your plans for the truck?

[drivea55]

Love a good story to start off a built thread! good lookin truck there too. Do tell... what are the plans for this guy?

oh, and...

[Black93GT]

Left SoCal on Labor Day afternoon, arriving at the house slightly after midnight. The majority of said drive time was spent contemplating how to get this tank off the trailer. My driveway is at a 10-15 degree uphill and the weight was far greater than estimated. It was very apparent the anchors I set in the garage floor would not hold the truck inplace if attempting to yank the trailer from under this monster.

The original plan was to get the 216 running, make it road-worthy, chop off the 1/4 in steel plate bumper and just drive this thing in all of its patina glory.

Unfortunately, a frame swap will have to be the path forward as this one was far too heavy and just an oddity.

Note the coil springs welded to the frame and read end housing to offset the additional weight. A keen eye will catch the location of a jounce bumper in the picture of the spring setup.

[Black93GT]

With it finally home, I was finally able to take some non cell phone pictures.

Someone dropped or dumped a few cans of paint on the truck. It certainly makes the overall patina more interesting.

[Black93GT]

As I've previously mentioned, this was converted to a tow truck. I would venture to guess in someones back yard or garage.

If you look closely everything was cut with a torch. Brackets, the bumper, bolt holes were not drilled, all were torch cut. The grille and inner fenders were cut as well and one could only guess this was done to mount a push bumper.

I found it intriguing how the linkage for the winch, PTO and gearbox was all fabricated from different scraps. They just make things work. All in all, there was a lot of additional metal welded in.

[Black93GT]

Had to clean out the interior and begin pulling everything out. No exciting rat or squirrel nests to clean out, but lots of dust and desert sand.

[Black93GT]

Work began... popped out the busted windows, removed hood/doors and kept working on the rusted/seized bolts holding everything else in place.

Day two of my efforts got it all off and brought to light just why the truck was so heavy. Not sure if you can see, but a previous tow truck was cut in half and welded on top of the 3600 frame.

[Black93GT]

So on to the little bit of clean up I've been able to do. Simply water and a soft sponge. So far the patina shows better than I expected.

[Katrina/10]

Cool truck!

[Advanced Design]

Really cool....lotta heavy metal in there. Like the lettering on the door.

[crossfire84]

cool truck, you must have some great neighbors, and welcome. plus keep the pics coming.

[Black93GT]

I undoubtably have great neighbors. They all know I'm always working in the garage, but I don't like to push the limits of how nice they are. Never too early in the morning, past 9pm and always tidy up so they don't have to see the mess I'm making. Stripping that truck down on the trailer to me was a little too much. Pretty sure we have a law/ordinance against it.

It was pretty awesome having some of the older people from the neighborhood stopping by and telling me stories about having a truck like this.

I was sold on the truck the moment i saw the lettering on those doors. I had a handful of 5 windows for sale just with in 25 miles of me... most of which looked to be in better condition. I can honestly say I did the 1300 mile round trip and suffered through the heat specifically for the hand lettering.

[Katrina/10]

As long as you don't leave it sitting out there for too long, you should be ok.

[Black93GT]

It was there for 3 days. First day was spent making garage space and two for dissassembly.

All that additional steel really added up. Specifications from the GM historical website show a 3/4 ton truck weighing approximately 3900lbs. When I took the stripped "rolling" chassis to recycle it came in at 3860. I'm pretty sure this beast overloaded the 7000lb gross limit of the trailer.

[Katrina/10]

Wow, at least you got some cash back!

[Black93GT]

Yea i did, and it puts me at a grand total of $233 to date.

On a build progress off-shoot.... I'm a sucker for historical tid-bits and been searching for info on Horstman Garage. I was able to find a few Horstman's who show having lived down there and both are in their mid-90's. Not yet sure if it could be the original owner but they are located a few hours north-west of me so a little more research is in order.

[Katrina/10]

I bet that old truck towed a lot of cars.

[_Ogre]

interesting truck from back in the day when people just made do with what they had
chain drive pto and that pig of a winch that looks like it could pull the world
probably never worked well as a tow truck, just well enough

[Black93GT]

Well it's been a while. What can I say other than... Life. Work, military, family other projects, Blah blah blah.

So I pushed the 67 camaro project in the corner and broke the year long hiatus of working on this truck and picked up an extended cab s10 and then realized it was 4wd. Well... $200 down the drain but shortly after found a 2wd version for $100 and stripped that down.

I drug the Camaro 327 out of the corner of the garage and mated it to a T5 that I picked off Craigslist for 400 with the bell housing clutch and flywheel. Unfortunately it's from an 86 camaro so the shifter is too far back which means I'll have to make some linkage to set the shifter forward.

I made a set of Sarge's cab mounts and motor mounts. Then chopped up the S10 transmission crossmember to mount the T5.

The picture uploads aren't working at the moment so I'll have to wait to get back from vacation.

[ptc]

Ive got a complete roller 3/4 ton 57 chevy truck long bed chassis if you want it. Ill send you a PM about it. Im close by in SAC.

[Black93GT]

So after entirely too long....
Dropped the cab on the s10 frame


Stabbed the motor and transmission in...

[Black93GT]

But unfortunately too far back

[Black93GT]

tried to delete post

[Black93GT]

Motor reset. Original column cut down, installed the column saver, 3/4" double d shaft with universal joints to meet up to the s10 steering box. Fabricated fuel lines to use with the s10 lines and a fuel pressure regulator.